Tuesday, 4 a.m.
The game had everything you would want. Except that Jon Cooper didn't want it.
It had a comeback. It had an overtime victory. It had two goals by Steven Stamkos, two more by Brayden Point. It had three assists by Nikita Kucherov. It had five overtime saves by Brian Elliott. It had a 6-5 vivtoty.
And when it was over, Cooper had a look on his face as if he had been slapped.
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"It’s not the type of hockey we want to play," Cooper said. "You’re not going to get away with it in this league doing what we did tonight. "
The Bolts were fortunate. They had only four shots in the first period ... and scored twice. They had one shot in overtime ... and scored on Stamkos' shot. They trailed 5-3 with less than five-and-a-half minutes to play ... and won.
But the Bolts got big goals from its big players. With 5:25 left, Stamkos scored his first goal. With 2:02 left, Kucherov rifled a shot that deflected off Brandon Hagel's knee (it was Hagel's goal).
In overtime, Stamkos got off the Bolts' only shot on a feed from Nick Paul and ended it.
"It was certainly a game where we probably didn’t deserve the two points," Stamkos said, "but we’ve had some games go the other way where we thought we did (deserve the points). It tends to even out over the year. "
For Stamkos, it upped his total to 493 goals and 998 points for his career. It was his 13th career overtime goal.
Still, there was an unsettling feeling to the game.
"You've got to play 60 minutes not six," Cooper said. "It’s a damn tough league to win in, so you’re glad we got the two points. But if we’re going to play on the road trip like that, it’s going to be tough. We have to be a heck of a lot better than we were tonight."
The Bolts travel to Boston to play the high-flying Bruins tonight at 7 p.m.
